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Saturday, 19 November 2016

AAR: German Grenadiers vs British Armour

Hi folks,

A couple of weeks ago now I got along to my new regular gaming group 'The old Guard Wargames Club'. We're currently meeting on a regular basis at various venues around Darlington and Catterick, with the last club meet in Scruton (near Darlington).

I had arranged a game of Flames of War with 'Stig' and we both brought along 1500pt forces.

A table was set up, using my current scenery collection (still looking a bit sparse) and we played 'hasty attack' with me as the attacker. Some pics:

Ruined village - most of these buildings need some work... I've been inspired by Lee's attempts recently.

Railway Signals box at the level crossing - the railway track had just arrived.

Full set up with armies deployed.

British infantry and light tanks over on my left - a pinning force and something to make sure I had units on the other side of the board come turn 4 (if I didn't then I lost).

Shermans and infantry ready to advance. The 25 Pounders didn't do much all game, and I totally forgot about the various British special artillery rules.

My right flank advance - soon to be reinforced by tanks from the centre.

Stigs infantry guns holding the centre. These are a real nuisance for the Shermans - perfectly capable of taking them out from the front.

My objective, guarded by a Mortar spotter team and some HMG squads...

Stigs deployment in the town. a Sniper and Mortar OP resided in the large building with no roof. These are cheaper buildings that the others, and have no levels. I'm tempted to make them burnt out/ruined.

The horde advances!

Shermans get to the railway line and go hull down while they fail to shoot up the Infantry guns ahead. Infantry on the left gets pinned by sniper fire.

German Mortars do a number on these infantry, while the Stuarts climb the railway embankment and start shooting up buildings.

Turn 2 for the allies sees more forward movement. The hedges and railway track on the right forming a real impediment.

Infantry whittled down by German mortar fire. They would eventually make it into the town and clear out some OP teams at Bayonet and Grenade point.

British Infantry make it into the town...

Shermans surge forward - sitting back and shooting was doing nothing!

Just before Stigs panzers arrived, you can see how close my tanks are to the objective. I think if we had realised about the 4" of an objective wins rule we would both have played differently. Stig did managed to take out 3 tanks, but spread over 2 troops and with command attachments.

The mission involves the attacker setting two objectives in the defender (Stigs) half of the table. The defender then deploys, the attacker removes one objective and deploys (roughly - the order of the last bit may be wrong. We followed the book on the night). I deployed strongly in the centre and my left, making it look like I was going to push on the objective in the town. However, I removed that objective and double moved most of my central armour out to the right flank.

Stig decided to keep most of his anti-tank assets (Pak40's, Stugs and Panzer IV's) in reserve, and started the game with only his infantry guns on the table. He then failed reserve rolls for 3 turns, meaning there wasn't a whole lot he could do to my tanks. His mortars and snipers kept my infantry pinned down and inflicted a lot of casualties on me, but I kept pushing up the right flank - struggling to get my tanks through 2 hedges and over the railway line. Eventually I got my tanks over, in order to threaten the objective. Stig eventually managed to get his Panzer IV's on and took out a couple of tanks, while moving his infantry into cover of the woods. Neither of us realised that 'control' of an objective was being within 4" of it - and my Shermans were within 4" while his units were further away. Stig tried to stormtrooper his infantry back, but failed the roll. He then tried to stormtrooper his tanks forward, but failed the roll. At the start of my turn, despite my advance looking very tenuous, I had won.

Great game, we both learnt a lot and will keep reading the rules.... nice to see so much allied armour on the table - we had discussed it before hand so Stig knew what I was bringing.

The other table at the club had a game of (I think) 'Too the Strongest' - which looked like a simple and fun game.

Nice looking 28mm figures - my first thought on seeing them was 'wow, those are big 15's...'

Anyway, another games day down and looking forward to the next one. Plus, next weekend is the Stockton show!

2 comments:

Thats a great looking game James, I like the more open set up, gives lots of room for manoeuvre and open sight lines. The 'Battlefront' road system is also great, I have been very tempted to buy some of that myself as I like the ruts and tank tracks etc. Is the cobbled section also Battlefront?

Seems like you are getting the hang of the rules now, was interested to read your previous post re FoW v4, THere is an awful lot to remember in V3 I must say, but that playsheet is very well laid out and a great help.